Uganda

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT UGANDA - PAGE 3

LONDON: A prominent volunteer of Indian-origin, who has worked for over two decades for a number of international as well as community-level projects, has been awarded the International Volunteer Award. Gopaldas Popat, 85, has also been named the overall Volunteer of the Year 2008. Harrow-based Popat has been involved in volunteer work for several years and has helped raise funds for international causes in India, Africa and Asia as patron of the Asian Foundation for Help.

KOLKATA: Netxcell Ltd, the Hyderabadbased telecoms applications service provider, is set to ink deals with MTN, France Telecomcontrolled Orange Africa and Vodafone's Africa arm Vodacom to grab a slice of the $300-million mobile value-added service market in Africa. It is in advanced talks with the firms to deliver services on both 2G and 3G networks, including customer lifecycle management solutions on the pre-paid and post-paid platforms. Netxcell operates in Africa through its Mauritius-based subsidiary Netxcell Mauritius (NML)

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lays out India's case for African partnership at the second India Africa Forum summit in Addis Ababa , the rest of the government will do well to get its act together to deliver on the promises being generously distributed there. The record on this front has been patchy, so far. As this newspaper reported on Sunday, 15 May, India is still discussing how to go about building the hydroelectric project it had promised the Democratic Republic of Congo 20 months ago, while the Chinese have already broken ground on a similar project they announced three months ago. The government of Uganda wants to give India access to its uranium mines in return for some training for its engineers in nuclear energy.

NEW DELHI: India and Africa have decided to revise bilateral trade upwards to $90 billion in the next three years, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said. Earlier, both the sides had set a target of $70 billion to be achieved by 2015. It had stood at $62 billion in 2011. "This is a significant improvement, considering the fact that a decade ago the trade was $3 billion. Given the current growth rate, we have agreed to revise the trade target to $90 billion by 2015," Sharma said at the second India-Africa Business Council meet here.

NEW DELHI: Uganda on Thursday wooed Indian pharmaceutical companies to invest and set up manufacturing facilities there by offering lucrative tax sops. "Investment opportunity in Uganda is huge. Different fiscal facilities are provided by the government, besides a 10-year tax holiday for the companies setting up manufacturing facilities," Uganda's Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (Investments)

KOLKATA: Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telco by revenue and customers, signed an agreement to buy rival Warid Telecom Uganda for an undisclosed sum on April 23, reinforcing its position as the second-largest mobile phone firm in Uganda with a 39 per cent market share, just behind market leader MTN, which controls 49 per cent. Though the deal size wasn't disclosed, top executives aware of the matter said Bharti Airtel bought 100% stake from the Abu Dhabi Group, owner of the Warid Telecom, in an all-cash deal.

KOLKATA: Bharti Airtel on Wednesday launched its mobile money platform, christened, 'Airtel Money' in Uganda. The service will provide Airtel customers in Uganda easy access to innovative financial services through mobile phones. The platform will allow customers to top up their cellphones with airtime, send and receive money, pay utility bills, access their bank accounts and even withdraw Airtel money across all inter-switch ATMs countrywide. Bharti Airtel has teamed up with international and regional banks to provide customers with access to deposit and withdraw cash, money transfers, banking services and pay bills.

MUMBAI: Bank of Baroda's Uganda subsidiary will be raising equity capital from the Ugandan market. This will make it the first Indian bank to have its subsidiary listed in the international market. The issue size in Indian currency is Rs 9.6 crore. Bank of Baroda (Uganda) Ltd, a 100 % subsidiary of BoB, will be issuing 80 lakh shares at a price of Uganda shillings (Ushs) 600 per share. This includes face value of Ushs 100 and premium of Ushs 500 per share. The offer also involves confessional offer of 200 equity shares per staff member at a price of Ushs 350. The bank has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India for the IPO. "Post IPO, BoB will be diluting 20 % of its equity stake in its subsidiary," said A K Khandelwal, ED, BoB and also chairman of BoB (Uganda)

MUMBAI: The Ruias-owned Essar Group is looking at merging its telecom licence for Uganda with the Dhabi Group's operations in that country. The Essar Group will hold a majority stake in the merged entity, valued at $310 million, a person familiar with the development told ET. The UAE-based Dhabi Group is an investment firm led by the Abu Dhabi royal family. In Congo too, the Ruias are negotiating for a majority stake in the Dhabi Group's telecom arm, Warid Telecom Congo, valued at around $70 million, said another person tracking the discussions.

BANGALORE: Tata Coffee has entered into an agreement with the Ugandan government to set up a 3,600 metric tonnes-per-annum capacity plant in that country at an investment of Rs 70 crore, a top company executive said on Wednesday. The company Managing Director M H Ashraf told the media here that he expects building of the plant to start after three months. "We have signed the agreement with the Ugandan government. Now we are in discussion with people who supply equipment (of German technology type)